A detailed look at the game of Dungeons & Dragons and all things related

Friday, February 28, 2014

D&D Campfire Stories: The Archers

Here’s another D&D story from my personal collection…

My friend and I decided to play elf brothers who were
both archers. This was back in the 2nd Edition days when ‘Elf Archer’ was a sub-class and came with all kinds of bonuses. We were both third
level and our DM was kind enough to start us off with decent +1 bows and very
good ability scores. At the time, we were the only two players in the campaign
but we knew that other players would be joining us after a session or two so
this was our opportunity to get a head start. Naturally, we wanted to make the
most out of it.

So there we were, walking through a forest, our characters
barely an hour old, when the DM describes a large shadow passing overhead. We
immediately take cover in the branches of a nearby tree and try to get a good
vantage point as to what is flying above us. It doesn't take us long to make
out the silhouette of a dragon circling in the sky about three hundred feet up. At the moment, it doesn't
seem to be interested in us. Now, what we should have been asking ourselves,
and what I’m sure the DM wanted us to ask was: what is that dragon looking for?
But instead, we were two young elf archers with high abilities and good
weapons so the first question out of our mouths was: can we take this dragon
out? Needless to say, the answer was a firm maybe.

So, with as much gusto as we could summon, my friend and
I walk out into a more open area, take aim with our bows and begin to let fly.
The dragon, annoyed at these arrows being shot at it when it was already quite
busy looking for something or someone else, decided to dive towards us with the
intention of wiping us out with a single pass-over and a good breath weapon
attack. My friend and I had other ideas. We asked the DM how many rounds we had
before the dragon would be in range to attack us. The reply came back as three.
Using the rules at the time, that meant we could each get off three shots a
round which translated into eighteen shots total between us both. Not too
shabby but this was a dragon we were talking about with roughly three hundred hit points and a very high AC. The odds were not good.

But, much to the surprise of our DM, we stood our ground and went for it. Our bows hummed and our dice began to roll true. On the first round we
each had one natural twenty. When we rolled on the chart, both of those shots
took out one of the dragon’s wings. That meant that the dragon could no longer
fly, just glide. Fair enough we nodded and kept shooting. On the second round
my friend rolled another natural twenty with his shots and damaged the other
wing. That took out the gliding and now the dragon was no longer attacking us
but just trying to safely land. On the third round we each rolled natural twenties
again. That completely destroyed his second wing and he plummeted the remaining
one hundred feet to the ground taking a massive amount of falling damage. By
the time our arrows had finished firing in the fourth round, the dragon had met
its end.

Our DM was both impressed by our display and horrified.
At third level, we had taken out a boss whom he had planned to use for much of
the early part of the adventure. Also, the experience from this encounter
jumped us from third level to sixth. He confessed to us both that there was no
way we could play at sixth level when the other players would be starting at third.
Out of frustration, he put a mulligan on the whole session and we were forced
to roll up new characters and start over with a new adventure. I remember
feeling very ripped-off at the time but I eventually came to understand the DM’s reasoning.

I suppose the moral is: Playing D&D for personal or
character gain is never more important than playing it for the story. Also:
Don’t piss off the DM.